The Battle of Slim Fast Hill

The Battle of Slim Fast Hill

11 Pax kicked off their Friday with a hearty helping of hills at Mountain Goat. After disclaiming the Pax and welcoming site FNG HIPAA, we moseyed to Raintree Lane and gathered at the gravel parking lot for dynamic stretching. The usual assortment of heels, toes, butt kickers, and high knees helped to loosen up the wheels in preparation for the main event: a few trips up what is now referred to as Slim Fast Hill. Slim Fast Hill is a 0.29 mile (thanks Sensei) stretch of Raintree Lane from the gravel lot to the intersection at Four Mile Creek. It has two fairly long hills that leave most gasping for breath and begging for mercy. It’s a grind. But we do it because it makes us stronger, both physically and mentally. We attacked Slim Fast Hill on three separate occasions before heading back to base, but not without stopping at Rising Meadow to cap off the morning.

  • Strong, determined running by all this morning. HIPAA more than held his own and we look forward to having him join us next week
  • Lois has dialed in his Slim Fast impression and will be taking his show on the road to colleges throughout the Carolinas
  • Insomniac arrived after we departed and embarked on a #sadclown run. Great to see you at COT!
  • Lest we forget, Slim Fast and other Pax and friends are conquering the Smoky Mountain Relay today and tomorrow. Best of luck to them.

Hanging Around in Waverly

CLIFFS NOTES

16 bros chose Waverly for the three headed panda workout called Cerberus.  We focused on grip strength and abs, using some less commonly used F3 exercises, and threw in some sprints just to make McGee feel good about himself. Congrats on smoking the 40+ year olds young fella.  3 miles were covered.

THE GOODZ

We did stuff…. whoever attended knows, and the rest… well, show to know! Here’s some of what we did:

  • Merkin up/down cadence ladder on the artificial grass pet pee-pad in front of Co
    • #35:  5reg / 5wide / 5diamond / 5R-hand fwd / 5L-hand fwd / 5R-leg up / 5L-leg Up
  • 3 sets of Bulgarian split squats, 10 each side
  • In deck, 5 rounds: dead-hangs exercises on overhead cement ledge, then race around the deck level.
  • In deck, 5 rounds: 10 dragon flag ab lifts… for proper form watch this: https://youtu.be/_mf_TLDVwIs
  • Top of deck, 2 rounds of alternating hip slappers on the top wall.
  • In deck, challenge longest dead-hang on overhead cement ledge
  • Series of AYG sprints outside, until we got back to launch
  • Finito!

THE ‘SKIN-NY

After attending the launch, YHC was excited about the new Waverly AO and was excited to Q Cerberus for the first time.  The opportunity arose when Argonaut asked for Q’s a few weeks back.  Too bad Menchi’s isn’t open that early for some salted caramel soft-serve and infinite mixins!

Couple of musings, before work duty calls…

  • Doc McStuffins held his own <weight> on the parking garage ledge hangs. But not enough to take down Cottonmouth in the main event.  YHC got him once or twice… but who’s counting. He’s still the BROlympics Dead-Hang Champ until 2019, even with his cheating ginormous mits.
  • Yes, Nutter Butter (somewhat of a Frasier lookalike) was there for those of you looking at me funny when YHC asked him to 10-count.  It’s ok… YHC is used to funny looks, and looking funny.
  • No, it’s not Lazy Boy’s birthday yet, he’s still 49.  But thanks for making us do 50 reps of some exercises because of the supposed 50th birthday Cottonmouth.
  • Good to see BillyGoat back from a back injury. Not only did he pre-run but he lifted all 54lbs of Turkey Leg to reach the pull-up ledge.
  • Turkey Leg showed no ill-effects after crushing the Boston Marathon on Monday.  Sneaky guy found a way to ask me what my Kiawah Marathon time was(my PR), and wink at me that his 3:17 on a hillier course in the rain > my 3:16. Well played little guy.
  • Mentioning UFC rules on Slack, Mighty Mite showed up ready for a battle with YHC, but backed down when YHC mentioned he would get beat like a drum with my Shaolin Monk skillz.  You too can develop those skillz by watching the instructional video:  https://youtu.be/dTxMvMdRR-I
  • Always great to meet different F3 men, or men YHC hasn’t posted with in some time.  Nice meeting / seeing you Astro, One Star, Schmedium, CottonMouth, Zeke Face, Good Hands, Lazy Boy, Nutter Butter and thanks for coming today.

LISTEN UP!

– Represent F3 Nation in your community by simply registering for 1 SPEED FOR NEED race this year. Pick whatever race you want of the near 50 events we’ll be supporting, run the race however you desire (alongside racing chairs, pushing a chair, solo for a PR, or with your kids). Be an example of male leadership in the community.  Check out our website at www.speedforneed.org to see the event schedule.  If you’re unfamiliar with SFN, check out a video, or two, or three… LOOK, here’s the link to one: https://youtu.be/5yZ0OCE0ncA

Have a Great weekend men.
SYITG ~ JRR Tolkien

Hydra – 4/19

My first time Q at Hydra today and I was welcomed by 13 brave men on a beautiful spring morning.  Quiet crew overall…heard some chatter from of the heathen bama fans in the group and some reminders that exercises are “optional”, but no complaints about the weather.  Goal was to make us all sore.  Worked for me.

The Thang:

  •         Standard warm up with 20 reps of SSH, Imperial Walker (wheelhouse), Mountain Climber and Low Slow Squat.
  •         Warm up lap through the hood
  •         75% sprint across football field with 20 merkins on one end and 20 jump squats on the other

o   Repeat X 5

  •         Max set of merkins…Bulldog did 7
  •         Moved to playground and partner up

o   50 Pull Ups combined with partner

o   LBC while you wait your turn

  •         Run across the street to the church parking lot…pick up a lifting rock and partner up

o   2 rounds of shoulder press while partner runs parking lot loop

o   2 rounds of curls while partner runs loop

o   Straight arm shoulder raises X50 with partner

  •         Back across street to school to the track

o   1 lap with 20 merkin / 20 jump squats at the “corners”

·         To the parking lot and circle up for Mary

o   20 X Flutter

o   20 X Dolly

o   20 X Freddie Mercury

o   20 X Slow LBC

Done

Until next time…

T.D.

Of course it is flat… I think

8 PAX at Devils Turn for some running around the hood.

With the Smokey Mountain Relay crews on full rest Thursday, and Meatloaf fart sacking at home, the numbers were more on the low side, but the quality was still high.

This is a new route for Devils Turn (as far as I know).  So with some descriptive chatter (including a picture of the loops as show and tell), and a detailed ‘don’t run in front of cars’ and disclaimer… we were off.

Commute:  Head down Bevington, Elm, 51, Rea, to the entrance of Carmel Estates.  The Loops:  2 loops, 2 miles each, in Carmel Estates going counter clockwise, and then head back, straight down Rea for COT.

Some mole:

Upon our commute to the hood, Stone Cold asked if there were hills on these loops.  YHC responded… “only a small one at the end of the loop”.   I was of course incorrect.  The first portion of the route was quite nice, with most of the PAX staying together at a relatively brisk pace and with  some friendly chatter as we selected Woodson’s future homestead.   Upon reaching the larger loop-within-the-loop, I realized I may have in correctly judged the bumps in the road (aka random hills).  Nevertheless, we pressed on and started the 2nd round through the estates.  You learn a lot about someone as you run in a group.  Lessons learned:  Enron’s skills in estimating home values may need some help, or the volume of pollen in the air was throwing off his senses.  Pop Tart actually knew this route and neglected to fess up that there be hills.   I don’t think Woodson ever noticed we were on a hill.  At least his pace did not show it.

Thanks all for the solid effort out there.  And thanks for closing us out Stone Cold

Announcements:  Keep Bout Time’s family in your prayers.  Enron on Q next week.

 

 

This Could Be The Whole Workout

10 men arrived at Brazwells this morning unsure of who the Q would be but ready to get down to work as we do at The Brave every week

Thang

Thin Mint – 1st Half

  • Run up BCP to Ballantyne Country Club entrance
  • Enter BCC and stop at Lederer and Ballantyne Country Club Drive for COP
    • 10 IW in cadence
    • 10 Windmill in cadence
    • Enough warmup
  • Long distance suicide running up BCC Drive, using the speed bumps as targets
    • When you are running out, run straight to your target speed bump (1st one 1st time, 2nd one next time, suicide style) and do 10 burpees
    • Then come back. On the way back, stop at every bump and at the start for 10 merkins
    • Goal was to get to the 6th bump by the clubhouse. Audible after 3rd bump to bring the suicide back down to the 2nd, then the 1st again, done
  • Quick mosey back across BCP to the basement of Room 101

Mario – 2nd Half

  • Stair suicide
    • Up all stairs to 8th floor and back down
    • Up to 7th and back
    • Repeat until done
  • Mary – Box Cutters, Flutters
  • AYG up the decks to the top floor
  • Wall sit
  • Back down the steps
  • Mary – Slow Windshield Wipers, Leg Lifts
  • Up stairs to the 8th floor then meet on the 3rd
  • AYG back to launch
  • Crazy Mary type sit up, leg lift, touch your toe, alternating, coordination thing

 

Moleskin

Mr. Bean had to pull out of his Q this morning due to IR. Apparently, he injured his hands doing so much spam marketing for The Fishing Hole and wasn’t prepped for a Brave Q. Lucky for us, he will be Qing in 2 weeks on 5/4 which is also his 4 year anniversary of F3. Probably don’t want to miss that. MT complained commented early (last night) that he was expecting an AMRAP — then he didn’t show to find out it wasn’t. The PAX were instructed to give him plenty of crap for fartsacking or going somewhere easier else, until YHC noticed a message from 0430 this morning that he wasn’t feeling well. All is forgiven. See you next Friday.

Always great having a Site FNG come try his mettle at The Brave. One Niner even stopped me at one point to ask who the heck was that guy giving Frasier a run for his money on the speed bump suicide. Yep, that’s Purell, making all most of us feel slow.

The goal was originally to get all 6 bumps in, but it quickly became obvious that this was not going to happen while still giving Mario his 2nd half of the Q. According to Haggis, YHC had a shit-eating grin on his face when announcing the suicide and it was as fun as it sounded. Frasier commented, accurately, that all 6 bumps could be the whole workout and we will definitely have to give this a go one day and see if anyone can get it done. My money is on Rachel. He was steadily making up ground on our 2 rabbits and would have taken them given a little time.

The stairs sucked, as always. We even had a refusenik, who turned into two, then 4 by the time the last trip up the stairs was called. They still ran, just not the stairs. Mario has been learning some new Mary moves lately, it seems. My abs hurt more than my legs at the moment which says something considering we got between 5 and 6 hilly miles.

Another tough morning at The Brave with no six left behind. Hope to see some more Site FNGs next week.

 

Announcements

  • Dads and 2.0s camping at Cane Creek Park in Waxhaw tonight. Bring a tent and some food. Super cheap. Contact Frasier for details and come for one or two nights.
  • FNG/Kotter day at Cerberus on 5/11. If you have a new guy you have been thinking to EH or know a guy who hasn’t been out in a while, this is the event to bring him to.
  • Q101 on Saturday 5/26 at The Vine. More details to come.

WBTV. Wednesday Broga Temps Valhalla

Started with devotion. Famous speech from Theodore Roosevelt “a man in the arena.”

Child pose, table top, puppy dog, table top, cat/cow

Down dog, 3 legged dog, low lunge, high lunge, warrior 2, peaceful warrior, extended warrior, triangle, crescent, half angel, down dog.
Repeat
5 sun salutations on your own

Chair pose, revolved chair, mountain, crescent lunge, star pose, low lunge, half camel, mountain.
Repeat
Plank, cobra pose, locusts pose, down dog, pigeons pose, butterfly, corpse.

Moleskin:

Introduced new pose of locusts. Daring, but we got they it. Always good when you break a sweat stretching!

No light bulbs will be changed today

7 PAX for the weekly rendition of ‘speedo season is here, time to get some beach muscles.’

SSH x 15 IC

20 Swings

IW x 15 IC

20 R handed swings

Diamond merkin on bell x 10

20 L handed swings

HALO x 5 each way

Prying Squats

THE Thang:

Round 1: Pyramid with reps of 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2:

One arm:

Sprinter stance swings, clean to lunge, snatch, shoulder press

Switch hands, repeat exercises

MARY

Round 2: Pyramid with reps of 2, 4, 6, 8, 6, 4, 2:

Two arm:

Slasher swings to L, slasher swings to R, goblet squat, upright rows, deadlift

Staggered merkin L hand on bell x20

Staggered merkin R hand on bell x20

50 Swings without stopping

20 merkins

Moleskin:

This was definitely harder in person than on paper. Somehow I had scripted the workout to have 3 rounds of a pyramid, which would have required a 5:00am start for that, there’s always next time. I always try to bring something new or different into the KB workouts, and the sprinter stance swings and slashers were that today. All the PAX were genuinely concerned about their sack of ‘taters when I demonstrated the sprinter stance swings, although I’m pretty sure the standard swing puts your junk in just as much risk (or maybe I’m just not as well equipped as the rest of the crew). Either way, everyone seemed to walk away unharmed (however properly disclaimed), but fine motor skills will be greatly affected from that beatdown. My forearms are a mess as I write this. Not much chatter today, as the workout didn’t allow for much more than heavy breathing. I think my choice of rock tunes was much preferred to my gangsta rap last time… apparently everyone can’t relate to coming from the mean streets of Bloomington, Indiana.

Funky Cold – Came in and crushed it, no questions asked! Well done!

Alf – Apparently nursing a hamstring injury… could’ve fooled me as he cruising through the pyramid. Hope to see you back at the bootcamps/runs soon!

Tulip – Flew through the rounds this morning. Must be time for a bigger bell! Thanks for the takeout as we headed into our days ahead.

Swiss Miss – Taking the role of High Tide today with more bells than PAX. Great to see you back at Meathead and grinding hard!

Hoover – I’m pretty sure he sleeps with his ruck on. Does someone who is 6’ 8” and 260ish really need to strap on extra weight? Oh and he is doing the Smokey Mountain relays this weekend. Dude is a beast!

Rachel – Don’t want to say anything too complimentary here as there are rumors swirling about the status of our relationship brotherhood. Average work as usual.

Thanks to Voodoo and Witch Doctor for the opportunity to lead at the best 0.0 in all of F3.

The InstaWeinke

AYE. 11 strong gathered in the Gloom for what they thought was going to be a Fire Hazard Q, but Mary Kay announced that he’d be doing an emergency substi-Q and would be repeating his last Rebel Yell weinke from a few weeks ago. At that workout, Mary Kay had extended the olive branch of q-ship to YHC for a date in mid-May and so I quickly took the reins. What follows is just a bare semblance of what actually transpired. It was harder and chattier than it reads.

THE THANG

Mosey to the Murderhorn – nah, nevermind.
Take a left onto the sidewalk along Elm
5 Burps at each little baby lightpost thingy
Plank & Merkins (also the name of a hip new brewery in South End) x 10
Circle up outside Jersey Mike’s
SSH x 10
Imperial Walker x 10

Time for the main show
At each speedbump:
Jump Squats x 10
Run over the huge ass hill
Merkins x 10 on the sidewalk

Plank at the end

Mosey to Sally’s Gifts, Lashes and Bongs for:
6 Minutes of Real Ass Mary:
Legs off the ground the whole time (100% compliance, FYI)
Flutta, X Cross, Box Cutter, Heels to Heaven, LBC, LBT, Pistol Crunch, etc
End with 50 cadence Mountain Climbers (50% compliance, FYI)

Mosey to other side of Ballantyne Commons in front of St. Mattholomew’s
Race around the block (0.9 miles)
Fast fools circle back to pick up the smart 6

Mosey back to the speedbumps
Same deal as the last time (over the hills and back) except 10 Burps at the sidewalk
Nevermind – just 5 Burps

Mosey to the front of the theater
Belly up
AYG to the stop sign

Fin.

YE OLDE MOLESKINE

  1. Thanks to Mary Kay for willingly passing the gauntlet. YHC did some squats in the gym a couple of days ago and had significant lactic acid buildup that needed to be removed. Hence, the leg-heavy workout.
  2. Let’s talk for a minute about Bucky. We all know that he’s a middle-packer when operating at cruise speed. We also all now know that he’s faster than Usain Bolt when running at full speed and has strides longer than Wisconsin’s football National Championship drought (1948, and that one is “unclaimed” in classic Midwestern humility). Dude. Flies.
  3. Strong efforts from the PAX on the hills, although Billy Goat led a small mutiny (just him) in round 2. All is forgiven, Billy Goat. You’re just living up to your name.

Thanks for letting me lead. Er, thanks for not objecting when I took the lead.

OUT

Spring is finally here

YHC arrived at Matthew Elementary with only less than 4 minutes to launch. The temperature was great for the weekly installment of Peak 51. The PAX was ready to get started! After a quick disclaimer, the COP began at the launch site and continued after a little warm up run. Here’s how it went.

COP
• 20 Imperial Walker
• 20 Side Straddle Hop
• Mosey down the street to the back-parking lot
• 20 Low Slow Squats
• 20 Merkins

The Thang
1. Partner Up

P1 – on one side of lot
P2- on opposite side of lot
Run to the middle of lot, meet partner and perform exercise. Once complete, flapjack with Partner to opposite side of lot
Round 1- 20 Hand Slap Merkins
Round 2 – 20 LBCs
Round 3- 20 Carolina Dry Docks
Round 4 – 10 Jump Squats

2. Mary
Slow Freddie Mercury
Rosalita
Flutter
LBCs

3. Over to the playground. Partner Up
P1- takes a lap around the track
P2- perform each exercise until Partner 1 returns, then flapjack
Supine/ Regular Pull Ups
Merkins
Lunges
10 Lunges
4. Mosey to wall sits/Air Presses

5. Partner Up
P1 – runs a lap around
P2- performs each exercise until Partner 1 returns, then flapjack
Circuit of 10 Step Ups (per leg) on the wall, 15 Decline Merkins and 20 Dips

6. PAX line up into 2 groups at Parking Lot- Group 1 against Group 2. AYG to end of the parking lot, back to start line and tag next Pax member.

Though the weinke had one more set for the cool down, we are out of time.

The Moleskin
We did not have a lot of rest today though the PAX kept together and gave 100%. We noticed the shovel flag was blown over, burpees will be on the menu next week. It is a pleasure to exercise with all you. Thanks to Lois and Sensei for providing me with the opportunity to lead.
Little Mike, thanks for taking us out.

Announcements

  • Smoky Mountain Relay this weekend, wishing all participants the best.
  • Richard Sheltra run — Saturday, April 28 in Pineville. 10K and 5K options.
  • Please keep Tweetsie’s co-worker; Martha Ann in your prayers. She passed unexpectantly as result of a heart attack. She worked 45 years with the Billy Graham Evangelist ministry.

ZERO MILES RUN

So to be perfectly honest I took this Q so I could work out with the PAX.  I personally have been wrestling with a foot injury that as continued to get worse as I run so I have not been posting. So when I saw the opportuntiy to Q I knew that I could control the amount running I jumped on it.  The delemma bagan thinking about how to keep the pax engaged with out being able to run around the school.  Then I remembered an beat down Ice gave us a few months ago where I thought I might die, hence the 12X12 burpees.

Warm up:  50 SSH, 10 Slow merkins, 25 Mountain climbers, 10 more slow merkins, 25 more mountain climbers then 10 night moracoan things.

Then into the 12×12.  Simple 12 Burpees  a minute for 12 Minutes.  Starts off hard but then it gets really hard.  Quickly the pax realizes it is easier to work up hill than down.

The Thang:  A bit rusty on my game plan we have coupon’s to play with.  Plates, smash balls, KBs and sandbags.  A mixed combination of swings, presses, worm burners and bear crawls x 3 rounds completes the work out.

Mushy Molskine:  I missed the group, it was good to see everyone.  Red Rider always cracks me up and The Grease Monkey always has smile on his face. Good to see some new faces and looking forward to getting to know them.

Manly Molskin: Tough group of men,  pushed through 144 burpees more than made up or what should have been a 50 of respect for The Grease Monkey.  I think we moved a total of 62.5 yards from where we started to where we finished but I am farily certain the heart rates were as high if not higher in the first 10 minutes than if we ran around the school!

 

Announcemnets:

UC Happy Hour Thursaday Night 7:30 Hickory Tavern

Operation Sweet tooth race this Saturday,  you can be a virtual runner at commitment